Could we have challenged for the title this year?

I may have missed this thread among all the others, but it has really got me thinking with this incredible run of form.

If we had Ole at the start of the season, could we have genuinely had a go at the title? Would we have been around Spurs level in third?

I’m going to be honest, I don’t see much difference in our squad and Liverpools. This is something we laughed at them for years for, because all indications show that we are miles behind them. However, if we had Ole and they had a midtable manager like Mourinho for more of the season with the same squads, I reckon we would be above them.

NO /thread. Not because Ole couldn't get us in the form for the whole 38 games, but there are teams which have more depth in quality than we do and they are rightly ahead of us atm. Unless we face major downfall in form, we should finish within ~12-14 points of the leader and inside top 4.

No, there are a lot of factors involved but I believe that part of the reason we are playing so well since Ole arrived is a reaction to how the first half of the season went so badly. There are players with points to prove etc. and there is an exciting confidence and momentum at the club that wouldn't be there otherwise.
Plus I dont believe we have enough quality to compete directly with city and liverpool this season.

I still think we are a bit too suspect defensively to have been able to challenge for the title. It's similar to Liverpool before they got Van Dijk, a fantastic offensive team but don't have the defensive strength to be able to win the title. Definitely would walk into the top 4 though.

Next year, a deep playmaking midfielder and a central defender, I think we'l be one of the favourites for the title.

I still think we are a bit too suspect defensively to have been able to challenge for the title. It's similar to Liverpool before they got Van Dijk, a fantastic offensive team but don't have the defensive strength to be able to win the title. Definitely would walk into the top 4 though.

Next year, a deep playmaking midfielder and a central defender, I think we'l be one of the favourites for the title.

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Not sure we'll be one of the favourites, but definitely much closer to the top two. Still think City will win the title this season, Liverpool will hit a bad patch sooner or later, and they will suffer injuries, like every team will. City have the best squad, and have managed most of the season without De Bruyne. Will need to get the defence sorted, still waiting to see if Ole can get Baillie calmed down a bit, cause I'm sure there's a terrific player in there somewhere. But we need to replace Matic. He's looked so much better since Ole took over, but defensively not great.

Still way too early to judge Ole, but as most have already said, your squad is and has always been at the very least on par with any other team in this league bar City. If your players were to play to their full potential (maybe overachieve a bit) and you had a bit of luck on your side, why shouldn't you be able to do what Pool are doing this year?

We could easily have challenged this season. The Sacked One claims he played to the club’s ambitions and strengths. His players capitulated at Liverpool but his excuses by then had turned into trivial rambling. He sabotaged our performances to get the sack - he has no alllegiance to anybody but himself, which he has now confirmed on TV. Since Ole arrived the same group of players has been transformed, and winning. All the top teams have wobbled and misfired at some point and we should have kept up with the pack. Regardless of our poor shout we are back and there are still a lot of points on the table.

I can’t imagine you would as your defence isn’t good enough, but you’d most likely be in a better position, probably third. Mourinho really did a stellar job in convincing so many of you that your squad is shit.

With this current team we could be challenging for second or third place. But if we had invested in a few positions (CB, RW) as well in the summer then yes we would have been challenging for the title with Ole or another competent manager in charge.

No. Our defence isn't good enough and our squad depth isn't good enough. We don't have the numbers to play the football Ole wants currently, we'd never be able to sustain a title challenge. Comfortably would have got top 4 though.

I think usually you would look at last season where we finished 2nd and say the squad had not changed a great deal so why not. Issue with that is that we finished a distant, distant 2nd and Liverpool have improved key areas of their team a great deal from last January to now.

We have a huge amount of talent and the fact that Ole is getting better performances out of important players means we would have had a chance. Now if he had a full transfer window where he was backed and got his signings right then I can't see why not.

No one knows how good Ole actually is. Can he compete with Klopp and Guardiola over 38 games if he has a good enough squad to work with?

I wouldn't dismiss Ole because of his inexperience as a manager of a big club. Zidane and Guardiola didn't have much experience either but were quite successful. It's too early to tell whether OLe is our Zidane or just a flash in the pan.

I think we would have been a comfortable third, ironically closer to the top than we were last season in “the greatest achievement of my managerial career TM” (I seem to have forgotten how to do superscript) but we would have fallen just short here and there over the course of the season.

What we would have seen, which is what we’re seeing now, is that there is definitely the makings of a title winning team in this batch of players. A couple more reinforcements, which hopefully we get the right ones in the summer, and more importantly not another dinosaur as our permanent managerial appointment, and the title can very much be ours next season.